Taiwan’s Formosa plans Mailiao ECH plant turnaround in September

03 August 2011 04:31[Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) plans to shut its 100,000 tonne/year epichlorohydrin (ECH) plant at Mailiao for maintenance in early September, a company source said on Wednesday.

The turnaround is expected to last one month and the plant will be brought back on line towards the end of September or early October, the source added.

The company has already reduced the operating rate of the plant to 80% this week from 90-100% last week.

The decision to hold a turnaround of the ECH plant follows the latest fire at the company’s Mailiao complex on 30 July which led to the shutdown of its 540,000 bbl/day refinery and several other downstream plants.

With two fires in one week and the sixth major plant accident over the past year, the government has asked Formosa to shut down all the units in the Mailiao complex in stages over a one-year period for inspection and safety checks.